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http://ec.europa.eu/environment/etap

Food Waste Reused as Biofuel

Several initiatives illustrate the potential of food waste as a biofuel source. Inaddition to energy recovery, such re-use is an efficient way to manageburdensome waste streams.

Waste cooking oil to fuel buses

After light processing, waste cooking oil can be used as fuel to power diesel engines. Several localprojects have been set up to collect used cooking oil from individuals and / or professionals and to use itto fuel public transport. This strategy is all the more environmentally-friendly in that:

It reduces the use of fossil fuels.

It avoids the disposal of large quantities of oil, which are a burden for sewage systems dueto their physical properties.

In Spain, the city of Valencia ran the ECOBUS project using LIFE funding.On average, some 100 litres/month of waste domestic oil were collected.By the end of the project, 800 commercial outlets had between themcollected some 800,000 litres of used cooking oil. The oil was stored andsent to a transformation plant to produce an eco-diesel fuel mix for use onthe city's urban buses. During the project 322,654 litres of eco-diesel wereused to fuel the Valencia City fleet.

In Austria, the city of Graz has had an ongoinginitiative since 1999. With the slogan From the pan tothe tank, waste oil is collected from 20% of the city'sgastronomy businesses. After transformation intobiodiesel, it is used to run 50% of the citys bus fleet.The project was also supported by LIFE, as part of theSMILE project.

The Targets for Biofuel production in EuropeUse of materials of biological origin instead of fossil fuels to produce energy is one of the mainsolutions for reducing fossil fuel CO2 emissions and thus for fighting climate change.

In the field of energy used for transportation purposes, in 2003 the European Union adopted theBiofuels directive. This sets a benchmark value of 5.75% of energy for transport to come frombiofuels by 2010.

More recently, a still more ambitious target was adopted by the European Council in the context ofthe Energy Package proposed by the European Commission. A 10% minimum target has been setfor the share of overall petrol and diesel consumption coming from biofuels in EU transport by 2020 provided that such biofuel production is sustainable and that second-generation biofuels becomecommercially available.

More: Browse the conclusions of the Council presidencyhere.

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/etaphttp://ec.europa.eu/energy/res/legislation/doc/biofuels/en_final.pdfhttp://ec.europa.eu/energy/res/legislation/doc/biofuels/en_final.pdfhttp://ec.europa.eu/energy/res/legislation/doc/biofuels/en_final.pdfhttp://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/ec/93135.pdfhttp://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/ec/93135.pdfhttp://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/ec/93135.pdfhttp://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/ec/93135.pdfhttp://ec.europa.eu/energy/res/legislation/doc/biofuels/en_final.pdfhttp://ec.europa.eu/environment/etap

8/8/2019 Apr07 Biofuel Waste Dairy

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2/2April 2007

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/etap

First European plant to produce bioethanol from dairy industry waste

Whey or lactoserum is produced in large quantities in the cheesemaking process: every 100 kg of milk will produce about 8090kg of liquid whey. Further processing of whey for food is possiblebut costly, and sewage treatment is difficult due to its specificorganic composition. Reuse as energy provides a new method ofmanaging this burdensome waste stream.

In March 2007, a German dairy products group launched theconstruction of a plant to produce bioethanol from whey. Thegroup invested 20 million in the plant, which should beoperational by the end of 2007. When maximum capacity isreached, the plant should product 10 million litres of ethanol peryear. Use of this quantity of ethanol would release energyequivalent to about 5,079 tons of petrol (or 37,079 barrels), andsave approximately 15,450 tons of fossil carbon emissions.

Biofuels production from waste animal fat

A French society specialised in the treatment of by-products from the meat industry and fisheries willbuild a plant to produce biodiesel from animal fat. This 20 million investment should create 20 to 25 jobs. The plant should be operational in 2008. It will have the capacity to produce 50,000 tons ofbiodiesel. The technology is already used in the German parent company whose pick-up fleet is mainlyfuelled on biofuel produced from processed waste.

Sources:

LIFE ECOBUS in Valencia (project LIFE02 ENV/E/000253)

Brochure Life Energy http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/infoproducts/energy/energy_lr.pdf

Projects website http://www.ecobus.net/

Projects laymans report on theprojects LIFE webpage

LIFE web site home page http://ec.europa.eu/life

Information about all LIFE projects http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/project/index.htm

Information about similar LIFE projectshttp://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/project/thematicdocuments/energy_trans.pdf

From the pan to the tank in Grazhttp://www.managenergy.net/products/R633.htm

First plant to transform whey into biofuel

http://biopact.com/2007/04/german-dairy-products-group-to-make.html

French plant to produce biofuel from waste animal fathttp://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/page_article.cfm?idoc=98511&nrub=188 (French)

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/etaphttp://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/infoproducts/energy/energy_lr.pdfhttp://www.ecobus.net/http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/ec/93135.pdfhttp://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/ec/93135.pdfhttp://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/ec/93135.pdfhttp://ec.europa.eu/lifehttp://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/project/index.htmhttp://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/project/thematicdocuments/energy_trans.pdfhttp://www.managenergy.net/products/R633.htmhttp://biopact.com/2007/04/german-dairy-products-group-to-make.htmlhttp://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/page_article.cfm?idoc=98511&nrub=188http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/ec/93135.pdfhttp://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/page_article.cfm?idoc=98511&nrub=188http://biopact.com/2007/04/german-dairy-products-group-to-make.htmlhttp://www.managenergy.net/products/R633.htmhttp://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/project/thematicdocuments/energy_trans.pdfhttp://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/project/index.htmhttp://ec.europa.eu/lifehttp://www.ecobus.net/http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/infoproducts/energy/energy_lr.pdfhttp://ec.europa.eu/environment/etap